Pakistani entrepreneurs visit K-State grain program

A group of Pakistani entrepreneurs visited Kansas in February to learn about improving fish farms back home.

Carlos Campabadal, an outreach specialist with Kansas State University’s International Grains Program, said about seven people from Pakistan visited K-State to learn about using soy meal to feed tilapia in fish farms. That was the third and final group to visit as part of a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, he said.

Producing enough protein to meet its people’s needs is a challenge in Pakistan, Campabadal said, and fish are a good option to fill that need. Muslims don’t eat pork because of their religion’s dietary rules, and beef isn’t widely available in the country, so most people use chicken and fish to meet their need for protein, he said.

USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service is buying U.S. soybeans to export to Pakistan and develop a market for them, Campabadal said. Soy meal is an inexpensive way to feed fish, but Pakistan doesn’t grow soybeans, he said.

“We’re trying to develop the industry,” he said.

Campabadal said they told the visiting Pakistanis about the protein benefits of feeding soy to fish and how to use it. K-State has worked with the American Soybean Association’s World Initiative for Soy in Human Health since 2011 to meet protein needs in Pakistan. Fish fed with soy in demonstration farms in Pakistan grew to about 21 ounces, or roughly twice the size farmers were getting with other practices.

Some Pakistanis who tried using soymeal in their fish farms have had good results, and one bought an extrusion machine from Sabetha to make the feed, according to the Kansas Soybean Commission. WISHH estimated it has shipped about 27 tons of soymeal to Pakistan to get its fish-farming industry going.

Campabadal said although the groups visiting were small, he belives they can have a significant impact on their country’s fish-farming industry.

“The challenge of this is finding the right people,” he said. “It’s people who are looking forward to improve Pakistan overall.”